Tiesj Benoot was the most Belgian Belgian at Strade Bianche
Strade Bianche is named after the white roads it uses. Presumably it should have been called Strade Bruno or Strade Merda or something this year. I have no idea. I don’t speak Italian. This is…
Michael Valgren is incredibly blond
The absolute state of Michael Valgren’s barnet. Just look at it. The colour’s so far beyond comprehension I genuinely can’t work out whether a feathered side parting is brave or a cop-out. Valgren won Omloop…
Vincenzo Nibali stays the right side of the barriers
Vincenzo Nibali won the final Monument of the season on a day defined by descending. The Sicilian is pretty good downhill but also had to be strong enough uphill to be right at the front…
Peter Sagan isn’t from the Netherlands
Last week’s Road World Championships ended up decidedly Dutch, bar the one rider who dominated all the headlines. A-loving Chantal Blaak won the women’s road race, Annemiek Van Vleuten won the women’s trial and Tom…
Alejandro Valverde is no panda
When Dan Martin won Liege-Bastogne-Liege in 2013, he was chased up the final drag by a panda. It was a memorable backdrop to a race-winning, perhaps even career-defining, attack. Look at him (Dan Martin) go!…
Alejandro Valverde, La Fleche Wallonne, the Mur de Huy, etc, etc
Last year, I wrote: “La Fleche Wallonne pretty much always amounts to a hill climb after a 200km warm-up. Alejandro Valverde is still the fastest hill climber, just as he was last year and the…
Philippe Gilbert has a colourful time at Amstel Gold
Ardennes Week (which is actually eight days long) is when we segue from one-day racing to stage racing. Amstel Gold, La Fleche Wallonne and Liege-Bastogne-Liege involve much of the hurly burly of the cobbled classics…
Greg Van Avermaet is King of Spring
If you’re accustomed to the cautious watchfulness of the Tour de France, the relentless violence of Paris-Roubaix can be a bit of an eye-opener. In July, commentators can spend three weeks discussing which mountain stage…
Paris-Roubaix has cobbles and the plot from Wipeout
Barses of granite or barses of some sort of hi-tech vibration-dampening material with a made-up pseudo-scientific name? Who’s to say how the riders get through Paris-Roubaix without sustaining permanent damage to their perineums (perinea?). There’s…
Philippe Gilbert passes his Tour of Flanders interview
The short version is that Philippe Gilbert pushed away from everyone on the Oude Kwaremont with 55km to and was never seen again. That really doesn’t do his Tour of Flanders winning ride justice though….
